The present invention relates, in general, to secure communication, and, more particularly, to the transfer of encryption keys for secure communications.
In order to provide secure communications between devices, it is generally necessary to utilize some form of encryption. Various types of encryption techniques are available in the marketplace. These different techniques all have the same basic premise that both ends of the communication have knowledge of the encryption key being used by the other.
From time-to-time, it becomes necessary to change the encryption keys so that the secure communications will not be compromised over time by an eavesdropper. Presently, a source device, such as a Key Variable Loader (KVL) manufactured by Motorola Inc. is utilized to change the encryption keys in various target devices. These target devices include any device that utilizes encryption (e.g. radio base stations, mobile and portable radios, and console interface unit, and digital interface unit used in communication systems). A source device, such as the KVL, is generally coupled to the target device by some form of wireline, such as a cable. The direct connect enables the KVL to communicate with the source device directly. As a result, the new encryption keys being transferred are transferred in the clear (i.e. not encrypted) to the target devices.
However, since the KVL is designed to work with a variety of equipment, the cable connection requires that availability of a number of cables to be able to interface with the different target equipment. Therefore, a need exists to provide a device and system that does not require the myriad of cables necessary to service the various target equipment. A solution to this is to use a wireless interconnect such as an infra-Red (IR) connection or a Radio Frequency (RF) connection to transfer the data. Using a wireless means to transfer the data can leave the transfer open to intercept and can result in the encryption key transfer process being compromised. Therefore, a need exists for the ability to transfer replacement encryption keys over a wireless connection to the targets in a secure manner.